Int’l Bloggers Club – A Crafty Mixhttps://acraftymix.com/blog
Unique DIY and Craft Tutorials Mon, 19 Mar 2018 09:31:41 +0000en-UShourly1https://acraftymix.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/cropped-Site-Icon-32x32.pngInt’l Bloggers Club – A Crafty Mixhttps://acraftymix.com/blog
3232Spoil Your Loved One With Sensual Herb Infused Bath Tea Bagshttps://acraftymix.com/blog/2018/01/29/sensual-herb-infused-tea-bags/
https://acraftymix.com/blog/2018/01/29/sensual-herb-infused-tea-bags/#commentsMon, 29 Jan 2018 05:30:55 +0000https://acraftymix.com/blog/?p=5948Hello beautiful. Can you believe it’s the end of January already. It seriously feels like Christmas was just a few days ago and since it’s the last Monday of the month it’s time for the International Bloggers Club Challenge. We’re a small group of international bloggers from all around the world that get together once a month to share a themed project. Since Valentines Day is just around the corner we all put our thinking caps so we could share some Valentine ideas with you. For this challenge I decided to make these Herb Infused Bath Tea Bags. They’re the perfect way to treat your loved one and you won’t believe how easy they are to make. Now I don’t know about you, but bathing in water that’s infused with the natural goodness of herbs is such a lovely way to spoil yourself or that special someone in your life. How to Make Your Own Herb Infused Bath Tea Bags First things first, make yourself a cuppa of your preferred brew and save those tea bags. My favorite brew is our own truly South African rooibos tea that’s grown and harvested in the Cederberg region in the Western Cape. It’s delicious and super high in antioxidants. I grew up on t he stuff and if your baby has colic nothing works quite like rooibos tea to ease those nasty cramps. Let the tea bags dry out a bit and then carefully cut open the one side and empty out the tea leaves. Don’t throw them away we’ll be […]

]]>https://acraftymix.com/blog/2018/01/29/sensual-herb-infused-tea-bags/feed/78Knitting Up a Little Planter for our Tillandsiashttps://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/10/30/knitting-tillandsias-planter/
https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/10/30/knitting-tillandsias-planter/#commentsMon, 30 Oct 2017 08:19:11 +0000https://acraftymix.com/blog/?p=5013Hey there, how are you doing? It’s been a strange week here. The temperatures have yo-yo’ed between sweltering and freezing, which is very unusual for this time of the year. We don’t know if we should get our winter coats out of storage or put a bikini on 😀 Even our garden is saying “what the fudge!!?” So we spent the weekend doing some preventative maintenance just in case. Tender new shoots got little blankets of their own and it seems our Tillandsias have made a whole bunch of pups, which need a new home. Tillandsias or “Air Plants” are fascinating little things. They do all their feeding through their leaves rather than their roots and they can grow on almost anything. From rocks and seashells to scraps of wood, as long as the wood hasn’t been pressure treated. As luck would have it, the theme for this month’s Int’l Bloggers Club is “wood”. Perfect timing right!! Every last Monday of the month a few bloggers from all over the world get together and do something based on a theme or a challenge. Last month we all had to take flatlays to show case our countries. It was really difficult. I struggled, alot. But wood…. I can do wood 😉 I wasn’t 100% sure what this piece of scrap wood had been stained with so we sanded it down and used a heat gun to bring out that beautiful grain, before sealing the wood with a non-toxic outdoor sealer. There are many different ways to […]

]]>https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/10/30/knitting-tillandsias-planter/feed/745 Tips to Help You Conquer a Flat Lay Photoshoothttps://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/09/25/conquer_flat_lay_protea/
https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/09/25/conquer_flat_lay_protea/#commentsMon, 25 Sep 2017 10:37:43 +0000https://acraftymix.com/blog/?p=4729Blogging is hard work you guys. Well for me it is anyway. There are so many things to learn and remember. Fortunately there are awesome bloggers out there who are always willing to share their knowledge and continually push you to new heights. Like the Int’l Bloggers Club. Every month a small group of bloggers get together to share what’s been happening in their corner of the world and set each other challenges. It’s loads of fun. This month we’re all attempting to conquer the art of flat lay photography. Which is just a very technical term for putting things on a flat surface and taking photos. Sounds easy right. HUH!!! I struggled with this one. ALOT!!! Here’s what I learnt after taking a bazillion photos. Tell a Story They say a pictures says a thousand words, or something like that 😉 And because yesterday was Heritage Day in South Africa I wanted to try use pictures of what that heritage means to me. We live in a country with the largest selection of fynbos (loosely translated as fine bush) in the world. Did you know that Table Mountain alone boasts more than 1500 different fynbos species making it more botanically diverse than the whole of the United Kingdom. So the flat lay story I wanted to share involves our national plant, the Protea, probably the most famous member of the fynbos family. And more specifically I wanted to tell the story of the King Protea and his Blushing Brides. Set the Scene I had to […]

]]>https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/09/25/conquer_flat_lay_protea/feed/68The Secret Language of Herbs and a IBC Basket Challengehttps://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/08/28/secret-language-herbs-basket/
https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/08/28/secret-language-herbs-basket/#commentsMon, 28 Aug 2017 08:12:29 +0000https://acraftymix.com/blog/?p=4565In the days before technology took over the world there was a secret language spoken only with fragrant herbs and flowers. So, when my friends from the Int’l Bloggers decided that this month’s challenge would be baskets, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to go back in time and send them a message using a talking bouquet and the basket would be the carrier 😉 It felt like I would be cheating if I just used a boring basket without doing something with it first. This is the Int’l Bloggers Club Basket challenge after all. A while back, a friend of mine gave me a paper covered balloon that she’d been meaning to turn into a hot air balloon for her twins. She’d seen the Steampunk Balloon I’d made and wanted something similar. (Ek skies maaitjie, ek het hom gesteel want ek het ander planne vir die twins). I used some twine to create a net to cover the balloon. I struggled a bit to figure out how to do it, so I won’t bore you with those details. Suffice to say, I finally figured it out. All you need is 16 long strips of twine. Knot them all together and stick them into the very top of the balloon using a pin. Separate out the strands. I found it easiest to split them into groups of four so they would be evenly spaced. Then I split those groups of four into two, before knotting the alternating bits together and sticking each knot into the […]

]]>https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/08/28/secret-language-herbs-basket/feed/70Use Old DVD Cases to Make a Vertical Gardenhttps://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/06/26/old-dvd-cases/
https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/06/26/old-dvd-cases/#commentsMon, 26 Jun 2017 07:35:06 +0000https://acraftymix.com/blog/?p=4175Hey y’all, can you believe its almost the end of June and we’re more than half way through the year already? That just seems wrong somehow. I hope it’s been a good one for you so far. If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you’ll know that the last Monday of the month means it’s time for the Int’l Bloggers Club (IBC) challenge. Every month, a group of bloggers from all over the world get together, to make, create or recycle something based on a specific theme. Last month’s we all repurposed tin cans and you won’t believe what everyone came up with. This month we had to do something with a common household item and we chose old DVD cases. That’s a common household item right? Everyone has them gathering dust somewhere. We have loads of them. Games, backups and movies, they’re all there. When we went through our stash, most of the inside bits were missing. How does that even happen? There’s no ways we could donate them, so we decided to recycle them instead and make a vertical garden. The plastic outer casing make perfect planters. They’re sturdy and a nice size. All we needed to do was drill a few drainage holes at the bottom of the DVD cases and find a piece of wood to hang them on. The plain black casings aren’t the prettiest, so we put together a template and used it to cut some leather bits we have left over from our epic suitcase bureau makeover to […]

]]>https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/06/26/old-dvd-cases/feed/72Making a Fairy Lighthouse Bird Feeder – IBC Tin Can Challengehttps://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/05/29/tin-can-fairy-lighthouse/
https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/05/29/tin-can-fairy-lighthouse/#commentsMon, 29 May 2017 08:33:04 +0000https://acraftymix.com/blog/?p=3734It’s the last Monday of the month which means it’s time for another International Blogger’s Club Challenge. Last month we all had to make something for our outdoor space. This month it’s all about recycling or upcycling a tin can. If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you’ll know that we love making things for our garden fairies. The tin can challenge made me realize that we haven’t made anything for them in a while. This would be the perfect opportunity to fix that. Legend has it that fairies will often disguise themselves as birds or butterflies to avoid detection. Only a few humans are able see these delightful creatures for who they really are. It often takes lots of time and patience. So, to encourage them to show their true colors we decided to recycled our tin can into this cute fairy lighthouse that’s doubles up as a bird feeder 😉 The lighthouse started out as this humble biscuit tin and a sugar pot that we found at our local hospice. Making the fairy lighthouse bird feeder First things first, we needed some holes at the bottom of the biscuit tin for the bird food to flow out of. The easiest way I found was to drill a few small holes quite close together and then use pliers to cut between the holes. The size of the holes will determine how much food is released. I used the same technique to make two holes higher up to create little windows for the […]

]]>https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/05/29/tin-can-fairy-lighthouse/feed/56Terracotta Art in the Garden – an Outdoors IBC Challengehttps://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/04/24/terracotta-art-frame/
https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/04/24/terracotta-art-frame/#commentsMon, 24 Apr 2017 09:28:34 +0000https://acraftymix.com/blog/?p=3513It’s the last Monday of the month which means it time for another Int’l Bloggers Club Challenge, where a group of international friends get together and share what happening in their little corner of the world. Last month we shared some of our epic fails and this month we’re moving outdoors. It’s Spring for my friends in the Northern Hemisphere right now so they’re getting their gardens ready for Summer. Down here in the South the days are getting shorter and the . There’s a terracotta shimmer on the horizon when the light drains away at the end of the day. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of Autumn. I tend to get a little melancholy. I want to hold onto that precious light for as long as possible but it always fades away quicker than the day before. Does Autumn do the same to you? One of the things that helps me shrug off my cloak of sadness is pottering around outdoors. So, it’s no surprise that I loved the topic for this month’s challenge. It was just the “pick me up” I needed. For the outdoors challenge I wanted to create something for the garden that combined the earthy, russet tones of Autumn with the beautiful vibrant greens of Spring. We had an old frame lying around in the garage that had been gathering some serious dust for a while. After a quick clean, a coat of rusty metal spray paint and distressing she was the perfect starting point for the challenge. […]

]]>https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/04/24/terracotta-art-frame/feed/42The Sad Story of an Epic Fail – IBC Challengehttps://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/03/27/epic-fail-diy/
https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/03/27/epic-fail-diy/#commentsMon, 27 Mar 2017 14:24:57 +0000https://acraftymix.com/blog/?p=3182It’s the last Monday of the month which means it’s time for the Int’l Bloggers Challenge. This month challenge is a little bit different from the others. We’re exposing some of our epic fails. Gasp!!! Something you don’t see often in a world where information is readily available and all you need to do is go to Pinterest to see pictures of stunning DIY projects and decorating ideas? I don’t know about you, but sometimes it feels like it’s all a little bit over the top. I’ve seen some beautifully decorated homes and thought, who on earth dusts all that stuff. And all those DIY projects where something that’s perfectly functional has been turned into something that collapses in a heap the minute you’ve finished staging the photo. If you’ve got a minute or two to spare let me tell you the sad story about my epic fail when I decided to make my hubby a man curtain. Even the name is a little ridiculous, but I that didn’t phase me. I figured it would make it easier to get to the number one spot on google if someone ever decided to type in “man curtain” 😉 And it all started with this contraption here. That thing is apparently called a Guy Wire Turnbuckle and I have no idea how it ended up in our stash of arbitrary things. Nevertheless it was there, and it looked like a very manly thing. Now I’ve never been one to shy away from playing with manly things so I […]

]]>https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/03/27/epic-fail-diy/feed/40Simple Natural Hygge Candle Holders That You’ll Lovehttps://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/02/27/hygge-candle-holders/
https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/02/27/hygge-candle-holders/#commentsMon, 27 Feb 2017 11:00:47 +0000https://acraftymix.com/blog/?p=3017It’s the last Monday of the month, which means it’s time for the Intl’ Bloggers Club, where 5 friends from across the world get together to share a little something about themselves. This month my friends in the Northern Hemisphere are celebrating the first signs of Spring. Down here in the South, the days are getting shorter and the trees are starting to don their Autumn colors. To prepare for the cold months and celebrate the changes Mother Nature is going through, we decided to make ourselves some hygge candle holders inspired by nature and all those special, cozy moments we’ll be experiencing soon. The Danish word hygge (pronounced who-guh) means to live in the moment and really appreciate, deep down inside it’s specialness. It’s that feeling of perfect contentment and that all is right with the world. It doesn’t matter if it’s cuddling with your favorite purr baby, watching your kids laugh from their bellies, dancing in the rain or simply lighting a candle. Hygge is all about being fully aware and grateful for the simple, beautiful things in life. I really wanted to incorporate all of those feelings in the hygge candle holders so I chose to use: Some beautiful dried out branches to remind me of all that nature has to offer, no matter the season. Bits of an old broken jaffle maker that brings back many happy memories of making toasties on the braai with friends and family. Rusty bits from an old lantern that’s been outside forever. I have a […]

]]>https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/02/27/hygge-candle-holders/feed/34Easy Rustic Topiary Place Card Holders That Will Surprise Youhttps://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/01/30/rustic-topiary-place-card-holders-ibc-valentines-craft/
https://acraftymix.com/blog/2017/01/30/rustic-topiary-place-card-holders-ibc-valentines-craft/#commentsMon, 30 Jan 2017 11:29:48 +0000http://acraftymix.com/blog/?p=28523Oh my word, January is almost gone and I’m so happy, it’s been a looooong, lean month. Has it been a rough one for you too? The end of the month also means it’s time for the International Bloggers Club challenge. If you’re visiting for the first time, the IBC is a group of bloggers from all over the world who get together at the end of every month to share their projects. This month we’re sharing Valentine’s crafts and because money is tight, I had to get really creative with this one. I’ll let you in on a little secret, I went to the deepest, darkest recesses of my craft cupboard to try come up with an idea. Ribbons and wood scraps and paint and noodles and ice cream sticks all went flying. Suffice to say, bits of all that crafty chaos madness finally became these rustic topiary place card holders. Wanna know how I did it? Those rustic topiary hearts were made out of a pool noodle. Yup, a pool noodle 😉 Are you surprised? If I had the moola, I would have toodled off to the craft shop and bought me some of those polystyrene hearts. But no moola means you gotta make a plan and the IBC is very close to my heart. These ladies have been there for me and they always come up with the most amazingly creative things. There was just no way I was not going to let my tribe down. And to be honest I actually had a lot […]